Ever since I’ve been guiding bike tours along graffiti, street art, art in the public space and the remains of the original Bijlmer District, I have found this work entrancing. Its intense colours and great variation, and the balance between figurative and abstract is striking. Looking at this work quiets my busy head. I can look at it for hours.
The work was made by Ramon Martins, a muralist from São Paulo, Brazil and is part of a series of murals in the H-neighbourhood made as part of the RUA (Reflexo on Urban Art) project. Until a few years ago it was unthinkable, exceptions aside, that such a mural would be found in Amsterdam.
Due to their think-out-of-the-box mentality, front runners such as the RUA project or the SAMA (Street Art Museum Amsterdam Nieuw-West) managed to build up collections of larger and smaller murals in Amsterdam. Today there are various initiatives that help to expand the collection of murals and street art in our city. As an artist/curator with a background in graffiti, I welcome these initiatives. Colour in the city!
Street art and urban murals are currently ‘hot’ and thanks to the appreciation for these art forms, there is more appreciation for traditional graffiti as well.
The Stadscuratorium aims to support this form of art in the public space and ensure that important expressions of street art are preserved physically or digitally. I’m happy that I, as one of its members, get to use my expertise to make a substantive contribution to this goal.
– Aileen Middel
